Hand-Held Drip-Catching Gelato Cup

ABSTRACT

One embodiment of a hand-held, drip-catching food cup having a vessel ( 20 ) and a flange ( 22 ) that are joined along a contiguous connection ( 40 ) to form a drip-catching channel ( 24 ). The innermost rim ( 48 ) of said vessel functions as a scraping surface for the dispensing of food into said vessel. Said vessel and flange are rigidly connected, allowing them to function in one unit as a single cup. Other embodiments are described and shown.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/382,273, filed 2010 Sep. 13 by the present inventor.

BACKGROUND Prior Art

The following is a tabulation of some prior art that presently appears relevant:

U.S. Patents Patent Number Kind Code Issue Date Patentee 7,614,523 B1 2009 Nov. 10 Fixler, et al. 7,530,468 B1 2009 May 12 Garvey 5,975,333 B1 1999 Nov. 02 Lee 3,279,638 B1 1966 Oct. 18 Merry 2,948,952 B1 1960 Aug. 16 Grogan, et al. 6,941,982 B1 2005 Sep. 13 Swan and Makris

This relates to dessert serving cups, specifically gelato cups dispensed to consumers at gelato shops. To serve gelato, a server scoops the gelato from a storage container using a paddle. Then, the server must scrape the gelato off the paddle into a serving container, typically a hand-held cup. Usually, the server does this by scraping the paddle along the edge of the serving container. The serving container, or cup, is usually filled to its rim or above its rim. Because the paddle scrapes outward across the rim of the cup, and the cup is filled to its rim or above its rim, as the gelato melts, it drips down the sides of the serving cup. This creates a sticky surface that the consumer must touch in order to hold the cup, and it creates a mess on tables and floors in gelato shops. If a separate apparatus such as a plate or saucer is placed below the cup to catch drips, it will keep drips off the table, but it will not keep drips off the consumer's hands. If the consumer tries to scoop a spoonful of gelato without holding the cup in place, the cup will slide, because gelato is a relatively stiff, viscous frozen dessert. Therefore, using a separate, unattached outer cup or saucer to catch drips requires the consumer to touch a sticky surface to stop the cup from sliding.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,614,523 to Fixler (2009) shows a drip-catching beverage cup collar. The absorbent web of the collar would provide only a temporary solution for catching a small amount of liquid, and it must be attached as a separate apparatus. U.S. Pat. No. 7,530,468 to Garvey (2009), U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,333 to Lee (1999), and U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,638 to Merry (1966) describe drip-catching cups designed for beverages, and they should be considered beverage cups. They are designed to catch drips that run over the edges of the cup when the user tips the cup to drink. The patent to Merry (1966) claims an upper skirt designed to keep the excess liquid caught by the drip-catching attachment from overflowing when the user tips the cup to drink; the design is explicitly for beverages and exists to solve the problems that arise from using a container that must be tipped to dispense liquid. None of the above patents provide a serving dish. Additionally, none provide a solution for a melting dessert that is filled above the rim of its container, and none provide a surface on which to scrape food into the container.

Both U.S. Pat. No. 2,948,952 to Grogan, Leominster, and Sawyer (1960) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,941,982 to Swan et al. (2005) address the issue of catching drips from a melting frozen dessert, but both are designed as attachments to go on the outside of food holders, and each gives the example of an ice cream cone. The patent to Swan (2005) describes a food holding attachment whose shape is designed to fit the shape of a solid food already in some sort of container such as an ice cream cone, rather than containing an fluid that will fill and take the shape of the container such as a melting dessert. Neither the patent to Grogan et al. (1960) or the patent to Swan et al. (2005) provides a drip-catching cup in a single unit. More importantly, neither are cups, but attachments. All the cups and drip-catching attachments heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages:

-   -   (a) The attachable collars provide only a temporary         drip-catching function because they are made of absorbent         material. An absorbent material can become saturated and thus         fail to absorb additional quantities of liquids, whereas a         non-permeable channel would not leak.     -   (b) The attachable collars are not permanently affixed to the         containers, so they cannot guarantee an impenetrable barrier.     -   (c) Typical cups don't offer any kind of drip catcher.     -   (d) The conventional way of catching drips with a saucer or         plate requires the user to hold the cup in place to avoid         sliding, so the user must touch the sticky outer surface of the         cup.     -   (e) The drip-catching cups previously invented are designed for         use with beverages, and their design is based on the assumption         that the cups must be tipped to dispense their contents to the         user.     -   (f) None of the drip-catching units is designed as a serving         dish.

In conclusion, insofar as I am aware, no cup or serving dish formerly developed provides a drip-catching function for frozen dessert or any food, and no drip-catching apparatus serves as a non-permeable, hand-held cup.

SUMMARY

In accordance with one embodiment an improved dessert cup comprises a vessel and flange, whereby the outermost surface is impermeable to liquids and a channel between the vessel and flange catches drips.

Advantages

Accordingly several advantages are to provide an improved dessert cup, to provide a vessel into which one can dispense gelato in its typical manner, to provide a drip catcher which keeps sticky food away from the user's hands, and to provide a drip catcher that is fixed to the vessel so that the entire unit can be held in one hand. Still further advantages will become apparent from a study of the following description and the accompanying drawings.

DRAWINGS—FIGURES

FIG. 1 shows a cup comprising a vessel and flange with the vessel serving to contain the gelato and the flange extending from a contiguous connection around the circumference of the vessel in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2 shows a similar cup comprising a complete cup functioning as the vessel, another complete cup functioning as the flange, where the two complete cups are joined at their bases to form one unit in accordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 3 shows a similar cup comprising a flared vessel serving to contain gelato and serve as a drip-catching flange and an inserted rim serving as a surface off of which one can scrape food in accordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows a similar cup comprising a vessel and flange constructed from a single, continuous piece of material, where the upper rim of the vessel extends downward and outward, then upward and outward to create a channel between the vessel and the flange in accordance with another embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows a similar cup comprising a vessel and flange, where the material forming the boundary between the vessel and flange includes holes that allow melted dessert to flow back into the vessel in accordance with another embodiment.

DRAWINGS—REFERENCE NUMERALS

-   20 vessel -   22 flange -   24 drip-catching channel -   26 inserted wall -   40 perimeter connection between vessel (20) and flange (22) -   42 base connection between vessel (20) and flange (22) -   46 connection inside perimeter of vessel (20) to inserted wall (26) -   48 innermost rim -   50 hole in boundary material between vessel (20) and drip-catching     channel (24)

Detailed Descriptions—FIG. 1—First Embodiment

One embodiment of the cup is illustrated in FIG. 1. The cup has a vessel 20 that serves to contain the dessert. A flange 22 is connected to vessel 20 around the perimeter of vessel 20 at connection 40 to form drip-catching channel 24. The innermost rim 48 is also the rim of vessel 20. In one embodiment, the vessel and flange are made of rigid plastic. However, the vessel and flange can consist of any other material that can contain liquid and is food-safe, such as paper or cardboard, various plasticized material, metal, glass, ceramic, etc.

Operation—FIG. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

The manner of using the cup with vessel and flange to serve and eat gelato is identical to that for cups in present use. Namely, a server dispenses gelato into the cup by scraping a gelato paddle that contains gelato along innermost rim 48.

Next, the consumer holds the cup in one hand below the rim of flange 22. The horizontal cross-sectional area enclosed by the rim of vessel 20 is less than the horizontal cross-sectional area enclosed by the rim of flange 22. Drips forming around rim 48 fall into the drip-catching channel 24 between vessel 20 and flange 22. Therefore, the surface that the consumer touches is dry and drip-free. The vessel 20 and flange 22 are connected rigidly so that the consumer can hold the entire unit with one hand, leaving the other hand free to scoop and eat gelato.

FIGS. 2-5—Additional Embodiments

Additional embodiments are shown in FIGS. 2, 3, 4, and 5. In FIG. 2 the vessel 20 is a complete cup having a base and walls and flange 22 is formed by a second complete cup having a base and walls, and the cups forming vessel 20 and flange 22 are connected along a single surface at their bases at connection 42. In FIG. 3 the vessel 20 extends outward from insert 26 along connection 46 to form flange 22, and the rim of insert 26 serves as innermost rim 48. In FIG. 4 the innermost rim 48 of vessel 20 extends outward and downward, then outward and upward to form flange 22. In FIG. 5 the material forming the boundary between vessel 20 and drip-catching channel 24 includes holes 50 that allow drips to flow back into vessel 20.

Advantages

From the description above, a number of advantages of some embodiments of my cup with vessel and flange become evident:

-   -   (a) The cup will catch drips, allowing the user to keep his or         her hands free of sticky, melting dessert.     -   (b) The vessel and flange are joined so that the unit is easily         held in one hand.     -   (c) The cup may be manufactured using a single mold using a         similar amount of material to traditional cups, keeping         manufacturing costs similar while providing an improved product.     -   (d) The cup may be manufactured using minimal modifications to         existing designs while providing an improved product.     -   (e) The height of the vessel being greater than the height of         the flange will allow the user to scrape frozen dessert off the         rim of the vessel into the vessel without obstruction.     -   (f) The material between the drip-catching channel and the         vessel including holes allows drips to flow back into the         vessel, so that all the food can remain available in the vessel,         and the drip-catching channel cannot overflow.

Conclusions, Ramifications, and Scope

Accordingly, the reader will see that the hand-held drip-catching cup of the various embodiments can be used as easily as a traditional cup for the dispensing and consuming of frozen dessert. In addition, the cup catches and contains drips, and it can be held easily in one hand. Furthermore, the hand-held drip-catching cup has the additional advantages in that:

-   -   it allows the user to hold the cup and drip catcher as a single         unit in one hand, keeping the user's hands away from the sticky,         drip-covered surface;     -   it provides a rim on which one can scrape food into the         container;     -   it allows the drips to run over the side of the vessel into the         channel so that the vessel can be filled above its rim;     -   it allows the consumer to eat the entire quantity of food         dispensed into the container, as none of the food is lost         through overflowing drips;     -   it permits a simple change in manufacturing, as it may be         manufactured in a single mold or by attaching a simple addition         to a traditional cup     -   it permits an alternative simple change in manufacturing if two         cups of different sizes, currently manufactured, are bound         together to form the design.

While the above description contains many specificities, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any embodiment, but as exemplifications of various embodiments thereof Many other ramifications and variations are possible within the teachings of the various embodiments. For example, the base of the cup can have other shapes, such as square, oval, trapezoidal, triangular, etc. The vessel and flange of the cup may be vertical or may taper, flare, or extend in some other manner. There may be a plurality of walls, vessels, rims, or flanges. The flange may be connected to the vessel along any location on either component, such as the base, wall, rim, etc. The vessel and flange may be joined along a contiguous connection or by a means of a bridging connection between them. Additionally, the cup could be used to contain any number of food products, not just gelato. Furthermore, the cup could be useful to contain various viscous fluids, as the design allows for an easy way to scoop, scrape, or brush the fluid from the container, having a drip-catching channel around the outside.

Thus the scope should be determined by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, and not by the examples given. 

I claim:
 1. A cup, comprising: a. a vessel and flange, said vessel having a rim and said flange having a rim, b. the horizontal cross-sectional area enclosed by the rim of said flange being greater than the horizontal cross-sectional area enclosed by the rim of said vessel, c. said vessel being joined contiguously to said flange, whereby a channel exists between said vessel and said flange.
 2. The cup of claim 1 wherein the outermost surface of said cup is impermeable to liquids.
 3. The cup of claim 1 wherein the height of said rim of said vessel is greater than the height of said rim of said flange.
 4. The cup of claim 1 wherein said vessel and said flange are joined circumferentially.
 5. The cup of claim 1 wherein said flange extends upward and outward from a means of connection around a perimeter of said vessel.
 6. The cup of claim 1 wherein said vessel and said flange diverge from a single base.
 7. The cup of claim 1 wherein an insert with a smaller cross-sectional area than said vessel extends upward from a connection within said vessel, whereby the outer edge of said vessel forms said flange.
 8. The cup of claim 1 wherein: a. a complete cup having a base and walls serves as said vessel, b. another complete cup having a base and walls serves as said flange, whereby said complete cups are joined by a means of connection.
 9. The cup of claim 1 wherein the rim of said vessel extends outward and downward, then outward and upward, forming said flange along a connection around said rim.
 10. The cup of claim 1 wherein a portion of said cup serving as a boundary between said vessel and said channel includes holes.
 11. A means for containing fluids, comprising: a. a vessel for containing fluids, b. an outer flange for catching drips, c. means for connecting said vessel to said outer flange
 12. The cup of claim 11, wherein the rim of said vessel is at a greater height than the rim of said flange. 